Friday, February 28, 2014

Today we welcome Victoria Lamb to our blog to talkabout the last in her Lucy Morgan trilogy.

Her Last Assassin is the final book in my
‘Lucy Morgan, Shakespeare’s Mistress’ trilogy, and is published this week in
hardback and ebook. This was my first-ever fiction series, and it’s been a
steep learning curve from contract to publication of Book Three. So I thought
I’d describe how it was commissioned and developed.

Back in spring 2010, I produced a detailed
synopsis and the first 25,000 words of The
Queen’s Secret, a Tudor Court novel with thriller elements. My agent sent
it to Selina Walker at Transworld, who was interested enough to suggest changes.
I continued to work on The Queen’s Secret
for the next six months, then we formally submitted the finished manuscript to
Transworld along with synopses for the next two books.

On November 17th 2010, I headed
to the RNA Winter Party in London with a group of glam writer friends. During
our pre-party drinks, my mobile rang. It was my agent, telling me Transworld
had made an offer for the trilogy. I was over the moon, and blurted out my good
news to everyone. I was going to be a Transworld author! And it was my birthday
too, by happy coincidence.

His
Dark Lady was the second book. At nearly 150,000
words with four narrative characters – Lucy Morgan, William Shakespeare,
Elizabeth I, and my fictional spy Master Goodluck – it is the most complex
piece of fiction I have ever tackled. The action of The Queen’s Secret takes place over nineteen days: His Dark Lady spans nine years. One
story strand follows the Babington Plot against Elizabeth I, and ends with the
execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, implicated in that conspiracy. Another deals
with Shakespeare’s rise in the theatre, and the disgrace of his mother’s
kinsmen, the Ardens. The plotting alone – working out fiendishly complicated character
arcs and timelines - took weeks.

So we come to Her Last Assassin, the third and final book in my Lucy Morgan
Trilogy. During the course of this novel, my heroine Lucy Morgan faces her
greatest challenge, Shakespeare embarks on a love affair which could lead to
his death, Queen Elizabeth comes under threat from a secret assassin within her
own household, and spy Master Goodluck is forced to confront his shadowy past
when his world begins to crumble. And the one who pulls all these strands
together is Lucy.

Writing a trilogy is a difficult challenge,
not least in terms of maintaining continuity and narrative tension from book to
book. But I find it more liberating than writing a stand-alone novel. You can return
to lost threads or answer a question in a later book, and build your world and
its characters slowly and deeply, adding layers in each volume.

Now I’ve tasted trilogy writing, I’d love
to write an even longer series. Meanwhile my Tudor trilogy comes to its
conclusion with Her Last Assassin – rather
a sad thought, but it will be exciting to start a new project!

Photo by Barbara Alderton: from left to right,
Cal Andrews, Victoria Lamb and Jenny Barden at the RNA Winter Party 2010, the
night Victoria 'got the call'

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Janet
grew up in the Australian outback, but has travelled to more than 50 countries
as a journalist and a computer consultant.
She has found herself at gunpoint more often in the latter role, which
surprises her. Writing books is by far her safest job. She lives in London with
a green-eyed Englishman and a grumpy cat.

Jessica Pearson is carrying a terrible burden of guilt.
Will flying an outback air ambulance help her atone for a lost life? And what
of Adam Gilmore – a doctor with dark secrets of his own. Can they find
redemption and love in a town on the edge of nowhere?

What
gave you the idea for your book and how long did it take to write?

Some
years ago, while on holiday in the central Australian desert, I fell ill. The
Royal Flying Doctor Service transported me out of there – may even have saved
my life. And it did not cost me one cent. I always wanted to write a book about
what it’s like in the remote outback. Basing the story around an air ambulance
seemed a good way to do that.

I
started writing this book at what was a difficult time for me. I had just lost
my father, my husband and I had just moved to New York City – a fabulous place,
but very lonely if you don’t know anyone. I usually write a book in about 7-8
months. This took over a year but I am proud of the result.

When
promoting your books do you prefer radio interviews or blogging - and why?

I
was a TV journalist for many years – and I do find it quite strange to be on the
other side of the microphone. Radio interviews make me a little nervous.

I
rather like blogs – because I always come back and read the comments – and
reply to them. It brings me closer to my readers… and I like that.

How
did you carry out your research?

The
town of Coorah Creek is fictional. The first thing I had to do was find a
suitable place to build it,

somewhere that would support a town of this size.
Then I started to draw a map of the town and buildings so I wouldn’t get lost
when writing.

Jess
is the pilot of an air ambulance and luckily I knew a pilot who was happy to
help me with that. It was the same with medical knowledge for Adam’s character…
I found a friendly doctor to help.

The
internet of course, is a wonderful research tool – but I am always careful to
choose reliable sources …

What
is next in your writing life?

I
have almost finished writing the second book set in Coorah Creek. This is the
story of Dan – the ranger at the national park, who was involved in a rescue in
the first book. Other characters from the first book appear in this one too. I
want my readers to feel as if going back to Coorah Creek is like going home.

If
you could rescue only one book from your burning home what would it be?

I
have a rare old cloth bound edition of Rudyard Kipling’s Animal Stories. It has
the most wonderful colour plates. It contains the first short story I ever read
– a story about a polo pony called the Maltese Cat. My father introduced me to
Kipling’s stories when I was very young, and this is what inspired me to start
writing before I was even a teenager.

If
your book was turned into a film who would you like to play the main characters?

I
think – Dr Adam Gilmore is Aiden Turner – although about five years older. Or
maybe Richard Armitage (yes – I loved the Hobbit).

For
Jessica – maybe Claire Danes – she has that mix of strength and vulnerability.

Friday, February 21, 2014

READ ABOUT JEAN FULLERTON AND HER MOVE FROM VICTORIAN NOVELS TO STORIES OF POST-WAR EAST LONDON NURSING

Jean was born in East London and in 2006 she won the
Harry Bowling prize, giving her an agent and a contract with Orion. After four
award-winning Victorian novels Jean jumped forward to post-war East London with
her fifth, Call Nurse Millie, released
last year. The second in the series, All
Change for Nurse Millie, is now out and she as just finished the third.

Nurse Millie Sullivan is
now Nurse Millie Smith, married to aspiring MP Jim Smith. NHS has just started,
so nurses are busier than ever as the community realise that they no longer
have to pay. Minor ailments need attention, babies need to be helped into the
world and larger-than-life characters need keeping in line so Millie has enough
drama to deal with without more at home...and Alex Nolan, her ex-fiancé, is
back in town.All
Change for Nurse Millie has just been published. Was it hard to find
another storyline to carry Millie into book three? Thankfully
not. I’d plotted the storyline for the second book and the first book of
Connie’s alongside Call Nurse Millie
to too ensure continuity. Of course, things changed as I wrote it but it’s
about getting the timelines to stay true.

Christmas with Nurse Millie was easy because I already
had student nurse, Annie, in Call Nurse
Millie and the O’Toole family in All
Change for Nurse Millie so I just bought both thread together for the
Christmas Novella.

Your
first books are set in the 1800s and your laterones
post WW2. Which time period do you prefer?

I’m
not really sure. I’ve loved all things historical since Roger Moore galloped
across our 9” TV screen in Ivanhoe. Each book I write is like a history project.
In the post-war books is I am able to bring much more family history into them
as it’s the period my parents lived though. For them things were always before or
after the war. My father fought in Africa in the 8th Army while my mother
endured the blitz and was even trapped in the Bethnal Green Tube disaster.

How
do you carry out your research?

I
go back to primary sources as much as possible. I must have every 20th
century nursing biography good, bad and dire. I also have a sizable selection
of 1940/50s nursing, midwifery and medical text books which I base the nursing elements
of the story on plus my own 25 years of nursing knowledge.

Would
you like to have worked with Nurse Millie?

I
think Nurse Millie worked much harder than I ever worked and for less pay. Nursing
was a vocation not a job. In Millie’s fictional timeline she started training
in 1937. At that time a nursing career meant foregoing marriage and children,
Thankfully for Millie - and my story - WW2 changed that as post-war there was a
shortage of nurses. To read more fully the differences between Millie’s working
life in East London and mine visit My
time as a District Nurse

How
do you fit your writing around your busy home life?

Goodness
only knows. I still work full-time and I write in the evenings and Saturday, aiming
for 1500 or a scene a day. That way I don’t forget what I’ve written the last
time. It’s the only way. Sadly, 124,000 words don’t write themselves.

What
is next in your writing life?

I’ve
just finished the first book of Nurse Connie Byrne’s story and will be starting
her second in a month or two. Then who knows but I’m certain whatever I write
after that it will be set in East London.

The
paperback edition of Truly,
Madly, Deeply contains 24 fabulous short stories. As a wonderful
bonus there's also a digital
extended edition containing a further 11 stories - fantastic for those who
like to read electronically!

Speaking
of giveaways, The Romantic Novelists'
Association has some copies of Truly,
Madly, Deeply to give away, along with pretty RNA fans - the kind
of fan that you wave around in front of your face to cool you, not the 'We love
the RNA!'-type fan. Although we’re sure they're all pretty.

And
come along
to the Truly, Madly, Deeply Facebook Party from 9am on Friday 21 February 2004!
Lots of the contributors will be posting about their own romantic experiences –
either ‘truly romantic’, ‘madly romantic’ or ‘deeply romantic’.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Today we welcome The Romaniacs who will introduce themselves and tell us all about their fabulous charity anthology.

We are honoured to be on the blog today to tell you
about our anthology, Romaniac Shorts.

We each have our individual strong points which has
been amazingly productive in getting the book to this stage. Here’s how we did
it …

Promo
Chick – Lucie

I love promotion so
took the reins, sourcing blogs and sites to visit, including the RNA, and
writing the launch posts. I may consider ordering a sandwich board…

Cover
Girl – Vanessa

We
all brainstormed the kind of look we wanted for the cover before I started work
– style, colour scheme etc– and I took everyone’s input and designed a bright,
bold, illustrative cover. The different colours and styles of the shorts
represent not only the eight Romaniac’s but also our eight differing writing
styles – an eclectic mix that blends together beautifully!

Strapline
Sweetie – Laura

I tend to
throw every idea in my head into the Romaniac pot, which the ladies
miraculously manage to sort, and that's how the strap line came to be. In true Romaniac form,
we voted, and 'Fashionably Brief' won.

As a
lover of concision, I enjoyed the challenge of putting together the Amazon
description.

Grammatical
Goddess – Jan

With very
little experience at writing short stories or flash fiction, I felt
nervously excited by the challenge and found the whole
process from budding concept to blossoming creation to full bloom Romaniac
anthology, hugely gratifying. I've also a good eye for detail
so thoroughly enjoyed helping to wheedle out those grammatical
gremlins and pesky typos.

Yummy
Mummy – Catherine

I've been in charge of the baby board meetings. They like
to give the okay on everything. Here they are signing off the final proof.

Magnificent Multitasker -
Celia

I have never had
any confidence in writing short stories until meeting The Romaniacs, but in the
last few months I have read their excellent work, picked up tips and had lots
of advice. With the launch of our first book I'm proud to be part of this
excellent collection. With the amazing
support from the others, even with lots going on in my very busy day job, I
have managed to not only contribute to the anthology but, hopefully, give a lot
of advice and encouragement back.

Dame Discussion – Debbie

There’s nothing better to get creative juices flowing than to have a
discussion about things. And there’s nothing I’m better at than adding my
two-penneth (which I did several times whilst compiling our anthology stories!)
When deciding which charities to support, it was me who suggested Dyslexia Action
as I felt it was a more general cause that everyone could relate to.

Tech
Queen – Sue

As Geek
Girl, it was my job to format and load 'Romaniac
Shorts' onto Amazon through Kindle Direct Publishing. Loading it was
relatively straightforward but the formatting took extra work. It wasn't until
I had everyone's stories that all the little differences in presentation were
apparent. Things like font, margins, indents, speech marks, spacing, etc, all
these had to be adjusted for continuity purposes. I also had to make sure I had
an up to date copy of the anthology as it circulated the group for proofing and
editing. From a technical point of view, I think we've all learned a great deal
from the process - it's been a lot of work but it's also been great fun and
extremely rewarding.

Romaniac
Shorts is a diverse collection of short stories and flash fiction and is
available to download now on Amazon. All proceeds shall be donated to Dyslexia
Action and the RNA.

Thank you, ladies!

Brought to you by the blogging team of Elaine Everest, Natalie Kleinman and Liv Thomas.

Please contact us at elaineeverest@aol.com if you wish to be featured on our blog.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Mary
is the author of sixty books, all but one of them novels. She writes historical
romance for Mills & Boon and longer sagas for Allison and Busby,
alternating them to give her a change of genre.

Escape
by Moonlight
is the story of two girls, Elizabeth de Lacey and Lucy Storey,from a Norfolk village, the one wealthy and
privileged and the other the daughter of the local stationmaster, linked by war and the men they love.

What
gave you the idea for your book and how long did it take to write?I
read a lot of World War 2 books because it is an era that fascinates me and one
I can remember. It is a mine of good plots. Once I had established the main
premise of how war brings together people who would not normally associate, like
Topsy, Escape by Moonlight sort of grew. It took me about six months to
write the first draft and perhaps a month more checking and polishing.

Escape
by Moonlight is a lovely title. How do you decide on titles for your books?

With
difficulty! Very often the first title I choose is not the one we go with and I
spend an inordinate amount of time agonising and writing lists and sending them
to my publisher. Together we somehow manage to hit the right one.

How
did you carry out your research?

Reading,
reading and more reading. For every book I write I usually need about a dozen
reference books. I read them straight through at first without taking notes,
just to get the 'feel', then a second time making notes of the bits I am going
to need. I also ask questions of experts (including RNA members, who
are a knowledgeable lot) and I have found people very helpful, over questions
of fact. Sometimes I'll visit a place but I find that places change so
dramatically over the years, it isn't much help for a historical novel. Maps,
pictures and contemporary descriptions are more useful.

You
set your novels in East Anglia. How important is that to you?

East
Anglia is where my roots are and Norfolk is where I spent my most formative
years during World War 2. I think where you were happy as a child sticks with
you throughout your life and is easy to recall. I live in Cambridgeshire now,
where the fens are as flat as a pancake and the skies are glorious. With the
weather we've been having lately I am beginning to think the landscape is
returning to what it was before the fens were drained in the 17th
century!

What
do you do to relax when you aren’t writing?

Believe
it or not, I read and I do crosswords, word puzzles and sudoku, anything to
keep my ageing brain active. Until a couple of years ago I played golf but have
given that up now and exercise and walk instead. When I have time, that is!

What
is next in your writing life?

I
have a new book for Allison and Busby, A Different World, coming out in
hardback on February 20th, the same day as the paperback of Escape
by Moonlight, I have a new Mills & Boon book coming out in April and I
am three quarters of the way through my next Allison and Busby book. After that
another Mills & Boon.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

A
big welcome to Juliet who tells us how she came to write her latest book.

Juliet has been a member of the
RNA for over ten years. She has been a committee member and a reader for ‘The
New Writers’ Scheme’. Having previously lived in London, she now lives in a
traditional stone cottage amongst the mountains of Snowdonia. Her first novel
‘Elissa’s Castle’ was published by Transita. Her second novel ‘Eden’s
Garden’, published by Honno Press, is currently a finalist in ‘The People’s
Book Prize’ for 2014. Juliet also writes short stories and serials for
magazines as ‘Heather Pardoe’.

When I first had the idea for We
That Are Left (Honno Press) I knew I wanted to write about the
experience of women in the First World War.

I have always loved the war poets since studying them
at school, and I have family in France so I’ve visited the trenches and the war
graves and been moved by them. But so much of what is written about the war
focuses on the trenches and I wanted to know more about the lives of civilians,
both here and in France. Most of all, I wanted to learn about the women, who
moved out from being simply wives and mothers to take over the roles of the
missing men, proving beyond doubt that we are not fragile and likely to lose
our minds if we use them, and that we are more than capable of being managers,
businesswomen, tram drivers, coal merchants, bricklayers. Not to mention
working on the front line as ambulance drivers, and picking up the dead and the
dying in no man’s land between battles.

I love Margaret James’ ‘The Silver Locket’, and Rose’s
story really inspired me to follow my heart and the idea that had settled in my
mind of a young women living a conventional, comfortable middle-class life,
putting her own discontents down to her own inability to grow up and face facts.
At that point all I knew about Elin was that I wanted to follow her both during
the war, when she is tested and grows in ways she could never have imagined,
but also afterwards, when she is expected to return to being the dutiful,
infantile wife who has, in reality, gone forever.

I loved every minute of my rollercoaster ride with
Elin on her journey of survival and self-discovery. To my surprise, I also
found myself drawing on my own childhood memories of my parents’ generation,
who had lived through another war, and particularly of my mother’s terrifying
journey through France as a teenager on the day the Second World War broke out.
Her descriptions of a country descending into war, with families being torn
apart at railway stations as fathers and sons were mobilised, most likely never
to return, have always haunted me, along with everyone on her ferry home being
told to stay still and quiet to avoid detection by the German submarine that
was stalking them.

Despite the tragedy of the First World War, Elin’s
story is not all doom and gloom. In using the family estate to provide food as
it becomes expensive and then rationed, Elin rediscovers her passion for
cooking and creating tasty recipes out of the most unpromising of ingredients. This
was where I had fun too, rediscovering my mother’s own recipes, along with
traditional Welsh dishes, which Elin inherits from her mother, and some
wonderful creations from the newspapers of the time. I’ve had fun trying them
out, too, with the results (okay not the burnt heaps and the collapsing junket)
and recipes all ready to start appearing on my blog.

I hope you enjoy trying them out just as much as I
did!

Elin lives a luxurious
but lonely life at Hiram Hall. Her husband Hugo loves her but he has never
recovered from the Boer War. Now another war threatens to destroy everything
she knows.

With Hugo at the
front, and her cousin Alice and friend Mouse working for the war effort, Elin
has to learn to run the estate in Cornwall, growing much needed food, sharing
her mother's recipes and making new friends – and enemies.

But when Mouse is in
danger, Elin must face up to the horrors in France herself. When the Great War is
finally over, Elin's battles prove to have only just begun.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Pia Fenton (writing
as Christina Courtenay)writes historical novels,
time slip and Young Adult contemporary romance. She’s half Swedish but has also
lived in Japan and Switzerland. Pia is the RNA’s current Chair. Her
third novel Highland Storms won the RoNA for Best Historical in
2012; her latest, The Secret Kiss of
Darkness, is now published.

It

is a time slip novel set in Devon.
The heroine’s life is turned upside down when she almost bankrupts
herself to buy a portrait of a mysterious 18th century gentleman at
an auction. Forbidden love, smugglers and romance!

What gave you the idea for your book and how long did it take to write?I was visiting the National Gallery in London when I came across a painting by Anthony Van Dyck (my all-time favourite artist). It was a portrait of a man’s face and it was amazingly well painted, so much so that I felt he might be about to talk to me at any moment! When I moved, it was as if his eyes followed me, he was so real. That gave me the idea of having someone’s soul (or spirit) trapped in a painting and the rest of the story grew from there. I can’t honestly remember how long it took to write, but probably about six months.

When
promoting your books do you prefer radio interviews or blogging - and why?I
much prefer blogging because it gives me time to think about my answers.Whenever I do radio interviews I’m always
terrified I’m going to say something really stupid and they either won’t or
can’t edit it out. Also, sometimes you’re put on the spot and your mind just
goes blank – a total nightmare!

How
did you carry out your research?First
of all, I went on holiday to Devon with my family to find suitable settings for
my story. I ended up falling in love with Saltram House, a National Trust
property near Plymouth, and decided the hero had to live in a house like that. I
also loved the scenic Devon coastline and the various towns there. I read up on
the life of Thomas Gainsborough, who features briefly in the book, and 19th
century smugglers. And, because my heroine buys her painting at Sotheby’s
auction house, I dragged my husband along to one of their auctions to see what
it would be like. It was great fun (even though I didn’t buy anything)!

What
is next in your writing life?I will soon be doing edits for the third book in my
Kinross trilogy. It’s called Monsoon
Mists and follows on from Trade Winds
and Highland Storms. It’s mostly set
in India and I’m looking forward to concluding this series. After that, I’ll be
working on the third book in my other
(Japanese themed) trilogy, which is provisionally called The Snow Ghost.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

As anyone who has ever been to a
Romantic Novelists Association do will be able to testify, the RNA knows how to
throw a party. You’ve never been? Well now’s your chance to try.

Tickets are available now for one
of the highlights of the year, the Presentation of the RoNA Awards 2014.

The Reception and Presentation of the RoNAs will be held on
Monday, 17th March, in the Reading & Writing Room (how appropriate) and the
Gladstone Library of One Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2EJ, from 6 -
10pm. Tickets are priced at £55 for RNA members and £65 for
non-members. (There is a 10% discount for early booking of tables of 10).

The application form for tickets can be found in the latest issue of Romance
Matters or it can be downloaded from the RNA website, where you'll find it
under the section headed Activities. Or, if you’re feeling lazy and incredibly
busy, here it is below.

There will be ample opportunity
at the reception to meet old friends or make new ones. Please let Liz know if
there is anyone you would particularly like to sit with and she will do her
best to accommodate you.

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Romantic Novelists' Association

We work to enhance and promote the various types of romantic and historical fiction, to encourage good writing in all its many varieties, to learn more about our craft and help readers enjoy it.

Romantic Fiction covers an enormous range, from short stories through category romance and much of women's fiction, to the classics. The nature of romantic fiction means that most of these novels are written and read by women. The RNA, however, boasts a number of very successful male authors amongst their membership.